Social Media Users Want to Be Heard

A look at user attitudes While social media users may not find social sites quite as trustworthy as traditional sources of news, according to research from Crowd Science they do see it as an important communications medium—for better and for worse. Users want to be heard. Overall, 45% reported liking when others notice them—leading some to stretch the truth or reveal too much personal information. Young people were especially vulnerable to activities that might haunt them later. But 36% believed others are simply interested in what they have to say. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to marketers, who know many users will tell all their contacts about good (and bad) experiences with products and services. Females lived up to their reputation as prime targets of marketers seeking the benefits of earned media. Among users over age 30, women were significantly more likely than men to think others wanted to hear what they thought. In addition, women overall were more than three times as likely as men to say online social media was their favorite leisure activity. Though not everything appearing on social media is trustworthy, nearly one-half of users responding to the survey claimed they could "easily" tell whether information they got from social media was true. Less than one-quarter disagreed. These savvy users believe they can spot the difference between the real deal and insincere efforts. While face-to-face contact with friends was generally preferred, about one-third of users said they would rather communicate by social media than by telephone. Source emarketer.com Social Media Consulting, Web Presence, Call Center Technology Book A FREE 1/2 Hr. Phone Consultation

Social Media Predictions for 2010

Social Media Predictions for 2010   With 2010 fast approaching, there's lots of talk about the social media predictions for the coming year. Although we don't have a crystal ball here at SocialMediaExaminer.com, we do have recent social media studies to support some very likely trends. David Armano recently published his social media predictions for 2010 on the Harvard Business Blog.  Here's [...] Read more... Social Media Consulting, Web Presence, Call Center Technology Book A FREE 1/2 Hr. Phone Consultation

Integrating E-Mail and Social Media

E-mail and social media are the top areas marketers expect to increase next year, and putting the two together is a growing trend. Full Article Social Media Consulting, Web Presence, Call Center Technology Book A FREE 1/2 Hr. Phone Consultation Social Media Consulting, Web Presence, Call Center Technology Book A FREE 1/2 Hr. Phone Consultation

An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

Image by deneyterrio via Flickr

by Mark Zuckerberg

It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we've built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook's current privacy model revolves around "networks" — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we'll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we'll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You'll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you're finished, we'll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you're done you'll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We've worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone's needs are different. We'll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you're sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.


Mark Zuckerberg

The Social Advantage

We have all heard countless stories involving a recent grad, a beer bong, and a ruined job opportunity. But Assistant Professor Barbara Nixon at Georgia Southern University is requiring her students to get social despite this. In her public relations class, students are graded on their social networking skills. "A student shouldn't be surprised about getting asked in a job interview: When you leave here today, I am going to look you up in Facebook and Google your name. How will my impression change?" She notes. There is not doubt that in WOM marketing, reputations matter. Cleaning up your social space is only part of the deal. When potential employers check up on social media, this is an excellent time to wow them with your prowess. Read more on Dr. Nixon's class and methods at The George-Anne Daily Comment at http://womma.org/word/2009/11/16/the-social-advantage/ Book A FREE 1/2 Hr. Phone Consultation

How Twitter Can Help--or Hurt--Your Business

Razorfish recently released a study of people who follow specific brands on Twitter. A whopping 97 percent of the study's survey takers said that their online experience with a brand "influenced whether or not they would purchase an item or service" from the company. 65 percent indicated that their online interaction with a brand changed their opinion of that brand. What do these results mean for your business? Even if you're a small company, the way you relate to customers online has an impact, so you'd be wise to have a strategy in place. Read more on the study here--and see us below for more advice on helping your business succeed. Visit http://FootPrintStrategies.com



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Using social Media

Social media is undoubtedly a powerful marketing tool. To get you started, here are our top tips:

1) Twitter

Twitter is a hugely effective free marketing tool for your business. It’s a micro-blogging site and somewhere that allows you to talk directly with your customers quickly and easily. You basically follow people and people follow you. You can tweet about yourself while keeping updated on the rest of the world.

Sign up and create an account, reserving your business name and start ‘tweeting’. You can tweet about your company news, point people back to your website and any useful blogs you might have, or even respond to tweets about your sector.

A useful ‘search’ function on Twitter will help you to find relevant people to follow or even target. For instance, at Boomerang PR, I follow PR Week but also lots of design and marketing agencies around Staffordshire and Cheshire. I’ve found lots of new business by tweeting about my services and sharing my expertise. I’ve also searched for things like ‘PR services’ and ‘web developer required’ to target others and introduce myself.

To make the most out of your Twitter account you can use more advanced tools like Tweetie, Hootsuite or TweetDeck. These will make using Twitter a whole lot easier and come with lots of useful features. Take for instance, Hootsuite – you can schedule Tweets to be posted onto your profile while you’re away from your desk.

Twitter has also recently introduced ‘Lists’ whereby you can organise all the people you are following, placing them into categories.

2) Facebook

If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest.

As a business, you can start a Group or Fanpage where people can follow you, similar to Twitter, and become fans of your business.

Like Twitter, this is a fantastic free marketing tool to help build your online presence and get more people talking about you and your products or services.

Again, you can point people back to your website, your blog posts or even seek customer feedback. For example, on Creative Boom’s Fanpage, I often talk directly to my fans, asking their opinion on how I can continue to improve the website. As a result, I recently launched Creative Boom Hubs – regional versions of the main website to help create creative communities across the UK.

Facebook also has lots of Groups which you can target. We helped to drive thousands of people to Creative Boom by simply posting about our magazine on different group pages.

What’s more, Facebook has wonderful advertising opportunities where you can pick out keywords and target certain demographics to help you reach the right customers.

3) Linked In

Linked In is a business version of Facebook that is hugely popular and has over 50 million users worldwide.

It has some very useful functions like ‘Recommendations’ where you can encourage clients or colleagues to add a testimonial to your Linked In profile.

It’s also another social media network that has Groups. For Boomerang PR, I follow a Staffordshire Business Group and regularly talk online through the forums. It’s also a great way of keeping informed of any relevant business networking events going on in your local area.

4) Write your own Blog

Writing a blog gives you credibility, helps you to showcase your expertise and target potential new customers online.

What’s more, by integrating a blog into your current website, you’ll be providing fresh and relevant copy. And Google loves regularly updated copy, which will really help boost your SEO.

If you’re stuck for things to write then consider the following: you could comment on something in the news; provide tips and advice; share your expertise; review a product or service relevant to your industry or even just talk about your recent client wins.

Don’t forget to give your blog posts titles with SEO in mind. Think of what people would search for in the search engines. For instance, this feature would be ‘Top tips for social media marketing’. It’s another great way of being found through the search engine results pages.

5) Contribute to online conversation

Check out other people’s blogs that are within your sector and add intelligent comments/debate to their posts. It will give you further credibility and put you in touch with hundreds of potential new customers.

More importantly, it will build links back to your own website. Why is link building so important? It’s relevant for SEO and helps to drive more traffic to your website. The more traffic you have, the more potential customers you’re reaching. The more strong links you have, the more your Google ranking will improve.

Remember, social media goes hand-in-hand with SEO.

6) Use Multimedia

Have you considered using multimedia to boost your online presence? Websites like Flickr, Vimeo and YouTube are a great way to add more personality to your business.

If you’re a designer and you want to showcase your work, you can easily produce a video gallery of your work and post it onto YouTube. If you’re a photographer you can upload your work onto Flickr, a photo sharing site that also has groups, forums and online communities.

Or how about adding videos to your own website? You could demonstrate a new product? Or just talk to your customers direct by introducing ‘vlogs’ or video blogs. Creative Boom has a feature called Boom TV where me and my contributors talk about different themes, sharing our top tips and advice on a variety of subjects.

7) Connect all your social media

Once you’ve got your own Twitter and Facebook accounts up and running and you’ve started a blog or introduced YouTube videos, why not connect them all up?

You can use things like Twitterfeed to tap into your blog’s RSS feed and automatically post things onto Twitter and Facebook.

Just think of Twitter and Facebook as powerful tools that will drive traffic to your website.

Don’t forget to add some social media icons to your website so that people can easily follow you on Twitter or become your fan on Facebook.

Digital Branding and Social Media

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Digital Branding and Social Media

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Basics Of Social Media

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

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Facebook becoming big friend of small businesses

The L.A Times just published a great article about why so many small businesses are turning to Facebook – for their own needs. Here's why small businesses spending money building a presence on Facebook and social media sites are much better than them spending money on Google and search: Facebook and social media sites are giant word-of-mouth multilpiers that support people sharing referrals and other information about who they know, like and trust. Before Google, people always turned to who they know, like, and trust to decide who to hire and what to buy. They still do, but now, people can do it online, instantly. Think about it: If you are looking for a new dentist, or doctor, or accountant, or auto mechanic, would you rather find them searching Google, or ask your Facebook friends? Would you rather sort through their websites, or through their Facebook fan pages, where you can see which of your friends are 'fans', what your friends and others have written about them in reviews and on the Wall, and how else your friends have interacted with them. Mark Zuckerberg clearly has a vision for the Facebook platform – which includes not only Fan Pages and Profiles but Facebook Connect. His vision is to connect people to other people, businesses, and organizations worldwide- large and small. In a few years (maybe a few months, with the current pace of social media growth), people will be able to instantly find dentists, doctors, accountants, auto mechanics and more that their friends know like, and trust – not just ones that have spent the most money on paid search and SEO. That's a good thing for all of us.

How to "Effectively" Use Social Media to Grow Your Business

By Patrick Daugherty The rise of social media has been quite remarkable in the last 5 years. Sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, My Space and more recently Twitter have established their value to empower social networking and are here to stay. So much so that entrepreneurs have flocked in mass to use them as another way to market the products and services their business provides. Shortly thereafter there was a flood of instructional social media "secrets" being marketed which has in turn trained many internet marketers how to unintentionally to tarnish the system. Unfortunately, many of those individuals are now jumping on the social media bandwagon with the desire to gain as many in their network as possible for the purpose of shoving their marketing down their throats. Many are using social media but far less are using it effectively, which prompting the writing of this article. The Cause & Affect What originally made these sites so unique was that it allowed others to connect together and routinely share information that appealed to the common interest. Those connected were then compelled to comment and share often since the dialogue appealed to them. Instead of one way communication, this enabled two way conversations. This is even more the case with the emergence of Twitter. These were intended to be considered "safe" places to interact on-line, away from spam emails and unsolicited pop-up windows. Social Media is not intended to be the place where someone continuously hammers their network trying to hustle their products. The"I Made 45K in 30 days!" and "New Business Opportunity In Pre-Launch. Jump Aboard!" do not bring value nor do they motivate the recipient want to do anything other than delete it upon viewing the headline. Making matters even worse is the rotating automation software which automatically sends these messages out every 30 minutes everyday. The issue is that no one is behind the keyboard sending anything of value and as a result, no one is listening. Be Affective: Brand Yourself As An Asset The best way to use social media to grow your business is to provide value, which is to say; connect, listen and give. Social Media Guru Chris Brogan the author of "Trust Agents" verbalized it well when he said "Give and provide value. Connect those that can help each others business. Be on the elbow of every deal being made. Give, give and give some more. It'll always come back to you. If you don't get that, then you'll never be a trust agent". The point is that if you want to gain viable connections that will funnel traffic to your site or customers to your business you need to be seen as an asset in meeting their needs. That takes asking and listening. The beauty of social media is that you don't necessarily have to be the smartest person in the room to do that. You just need to be connected with the expert and put them together to mutually meet their business need. You can also find purpose if you refer them to internet sources of information that can meet that need as well. It Doesn't Take A Large Network: Quality Over Quantity Many talk about the tens-of-thousands of connections needed in order to get your message out and benefit your business. That is true if no one is listening and you're only getting a response-rate equal to that of a mass mailer or telemarketing call. You see, it's not necessarily about the number but rather about the quality of those potential internet business relationships that matter. It comes down to how well you've branded yourself and as a result, how much you can leverage that solid reputation to be able to help others and in turn help reach your goals as well. It takes far fewer social media connections if they are people that know you well enough to refer others to you or recommend you to their tight knit group. It also takes far less if you are more discrete about those that you connect with. Find out before hand if they are a spammer or if they fit your prospect/customer demographic or the profile of someone with a like mind. When they see a message you've sent, you want them to sit forward and read through it because they know you're a trusted source and have sent something that will help them. Remember, your goal is not to purely "get more people" but rather to forge an electronic business relationship that is solid enough for that person to recommend you to someone else. Application Now make no mistake, I'm not saying that you have to take a long time to do cultivate your branding or reputation. Just a personal message every once in a while which can be something as basic as: "Since I know some key people in your industry, I would feel comfortable referring you to anyone if you let me know what you need. So I was wondering what challenges you're facing this week? Is there any way I help your business be more successful?". I've had people come back with "I just wrote a blog post and was wondering if you could read and comment on it". What's incredible is that if you start, it tends to be contagious. When your connection hears of someone that has a need, you want them to think of you and tell them, "hey, I know a person who might be able to help you out, let me put you two together". Now you've empowered that connection to feel like they brought value to their network and helped someone too. Conclusion Always bear in mind that no one appreciates being regarded merely as a number and everyone places value on being asked questions and listened to. So take a slice of time out of your day to be more deliberate with who you connect with and how you are developing your personal brand. Cultivate a network that you can leverage because, like any relationship it takes an investment before you can assume to ask for something in return. You'll find that as soon as you do, they'll welcome the chance to return the favor. It's what social media was intended to be. R. Patrick Daugherty The Biz Coach Check out: http://TheBizcoachBlog.com Get free coaching and resources for your business from "The Biz Coach" at: http://Learn2Earnitnow.biz Mr. Daugherty is known for having a passion for coaching business executives and entrepreneurs in the art of identifying, attracting and retaining top talent while effectively communicating, mentoring and coaching them to reach their personal and professional goals. Over his 15 year career he has been fortunate enough to have consulted and coached leaders in a wide range of industries from international technology firms and large insurance conglomerates to numerous staffing & recruiting firms as well as state & local policy makers and grass roots organizations. He is now utilizing that wealth of experience to help entrepreneurs of small and home-based business. Patrick is married to his beautiful wife Diane and live with their three children in central Pennsylvania. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_Daugherty Learn more on branding with social media at http://FootprintStrategies.com

Changes On Facebook

NEW YORK — Worried about missing a birth announcement, or details on what your portly uncle had for lunch?

Facebook is tweaking its home page yet again in hopes of making it easier to find information. Among the latest changes is a list of items you might have missed during those rare moments spent away from the online hangout.

The changes are being rolled out Friday.

When you log in to Facebook you will see what the site deems the most interesting things that happened in the past day in the "News Feed." These could be photos, status updates or other items. As has been the case previously, what Facebook deems interesting to you will be based on what updates are popular with your friends or how close you are to the person giving the update.

"If the content has comments or 'likes' by 10 of your mutual friends, it's something that is important to you," said Peter Deng, a Facebook product manager.

After you've caught up, you can click back to the "Live Feed" you've had before and read updates from everyone on your friends list in a constant stream.

In another change, Facebook is integrating its "Highlights" feature from the right hand side of the page to the "News Feed" in the middle. The space it frees up will be used to feature birthdays and events more prominently – something Facebook says users had asked for.

And the site is restoring some features it had gotten rid of, such as posts on when your friend adds a new friend or becomes a fan of a brand or a celebrity.

"Nothing is going away," Deng said. "We are just moving things around."

That's important, because if past redesigns are any indication, change doesn't always go over well at Facebook.

Facebook has more than 300 million active users worldwide and about half of them log in every day. For many people, the site is becoming an important social hub for keeping up with friends and family.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/23/facebooks-news-feed-revam_n_332160.html

10 Ways To Build A Brand You Can Be Proud Of

Tip 1: Use A Consistent Design

A large portion of branding is about image and that image is portrayed through your design. It can be the logo, a set of colors, or simply a consistent look and feel. As Jared Spool states in his article, “Determining How Design Affects Branding“, “Brand elements, such as names, logos, tag lines, trademarks, and packaging are shortcuts to” the perceptions of the consumer. If you tightly integrate your design into your product or service, the design can begin to evoke the emotions and perceptions that the consumers experience when interacting with your product or service.

Tip 2: Determine Your Brand Personality

While brands may not be people, the personification of brands helps consumers to connect with them. That’s why it’s important to determine what your brand’s personality is. Much of that personality can come through your own voice since people like connecting with other individuals but you should be able to define the overall personality of your brand as well.

Tip 3: Have A Consistent Dialogue

Whether you are having a conversation on Facebook, Twitter, or during a presentation, it’s important to have a consistent message. While you can engage in different conversations, it’s important that your conversation is most frequently about similar ideas or concepts. For example Oprah would not have a conversation with her viewers about computer programming. Maybe that’s an extreme example but the main point is that there is a consistent dialog that you should have with your consumers.

Tip 4: Define Your Target Market

Who are you selling to? That’s a question that many brands fail to answer and in the end they become so broadly focused that they end up selling nothing. I’ve made this mistake before and the results can be extremely painful. You invest months building something only to find out that you didn’t target a specific market and in the end nobody ends up making a purchase. As Wikipedia states, your target market “is mainly defined by age, gender, geography, socio-economic grouping, technographic, or any other combination of demographics.” Figure out who you are targeting. This is also extremely important for when you begin running ad campaigns on Facebook (which we’ll be explaining later). Figure out your target market and you are well on your way to 3,000 fans.

Tip 5: Know What Your Brand Is Selling

You’ve selected a target market but do you know what your customers want? While you can pick out a segment of the market to go after, providing them with something that they truly want is a whole other challenge. Often times companies will spend months preparing for a product launch only to find out that nobody ended up purchasing the product. Sometimes brands will launch a product or service only to find out that their consumer is using it for another reason than it was intended. If you don’t understand how your customer is interacting with your brand then good luck developing a Facebook public profile that’s going to rapidly attract thousands of users. Once you have determined your target market and you know what your brand is selling, you can proceed to build a large fan base.

Tip 6: Figure Out The Terms That Drive Action From Your Market

This is more about sales and marketing then it is about building your brand but at the end of the day, there’s no point in building a brand if you don’t plan on using it to sell something. While an attractive brand can build you a large fan base, selling is much more challenging. Each buyer has their own psychological triggers that will drive them to make a purchase and often times, there are words that will drive an entire market to make a purchase. That’s why you need to invest the time to test out various forms of copy and see what works with your market.

There are actually words that will make it more likely for your fans to take action. By discovering these words/terms you can associate them with your brand and increase the bond with your fans.

Tip 7: Listen To Your Target Market

Social media is much more about listening than talking at people. Honestly, the old direct methods of marketing are now dead and instead marketing has become a conversation that brands have with their customers. Thankfully, this new model presents many new opportunities and those brands that are quickest to adapt will reap the rewards. Some of your customers will want to engage in a dialogue with your brand and Facebook public profiles are a great place for that to take place. Did someone post something negative about your brand? Publicly acknowledge their criticism and then proceed to offer a solution.

If your brand is willing to publicly acknowledge weaknesses and address them, it will build trust with your brand for existing and future customers. Many times your fans will actually tell you what they’d like your brand to provide. This is gold to any effective marketer. Spend the time to listen, don’t just speak at your fans.

Tip 8: Provide Relevant Content That Amplifies Your Brand

It’s difficult to consistently come up with original content. As someone who has written over 2,000 articles in the past two years, I can attest to the challenge of developing original content. Thankfully, in social media (and on Facebook public profiles), you don’t always need to come up with original content. As you browse the web, share content that is relevant to your brand directly from within your Facebook page. This way you can keep your fans engaged with ongoing content and you don’t need to always be the one producing that content.

Tip 9: Create Great Content

While sharing content from around the web is always an easy way to get your fans engaged, it’s always better to create original content. It’s possible to provide original content which rehashes existing content but the best content is truly original. One of the best forms of original content is educational guides. Educating your future consumer is always a great way to build trust and to build an ongoing relationship. That’s not to say that the only content you should create is educational content. Content that entertains, engages, informs, or simply makes the reader smile is great for keeping their attention. If you want to learn more about creating great content I highly recommend reading Copyblogger on a regular basis.

Tip 10: Leverage Multiple Branding Channels

No, Facebook Pages are not the end all, be all of your branding strategy. People regularly ask what the best site is for building their brand and generating new business. The response is always the same no matter who you ask in the industry: go to where your customers are. If your existing or future customers are on Facebook (there’s a good chance they are there with over 250 million users) or even MySpace (GASP!), your company should be there. Wherever your customer is, you should be there.

For More Info Visit Ron Mills http://FootPrintStrategies.com